One big sigh: video editing success

History

Alright, here’s the story: I’ve been trying to get my video editing workflow down for a long time now, nearly a year since I got more serious about it.

For some years now I have played with video editing very little, but have enjoyed making short films with family.

December 2007 I purchased the Adobe Video Collection (2003) from a friend to use for my personal video projects and to edit something to DVD (Miracle In Gansu play to DVD.) But after nearly a year I still have not gotten the project done due to a lack of knowledge and to my royal procrastination skills. 🙂

During this time I tried to get Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0 to work for my video editing tasks, but for the majority of it I was unsuccessful. The only successful project that I produced from it was DuelMind, a short film for the 24 Hour Christian Film Contest (however, I was unable to enter my film into the contest because I had never used YouTube before and did not realize that the file size of my video was way too big. The next day a friend of mine gave me some advice which solved my problem – but the deadline had passed and it was too late.) And even with that project I think the audio and video were getting out of sync. 😦

I will let you know: a/v out of sync has been my greatest technical video editing “curse.” 😀

I have tried to get Cinelerra to work, (actually the link goes to the CV version, whereas I may have been trying to get the official release to work,) but I was not successful with that. I have seen Kino, touched Avidemux, tasted VirtualDub, and used Windows Movie Maker. The latter program was the one I used the most, especially before I got the Adobe Video Collection. Simply put: It worked. But to use who are artistically inclined or professionally minded, it just isn’t enough.

I saved up for a camcorder and purchased the JVC Everio GZ-HD7. The .tod file type (video container) posed a big problem, though, and for long time I was stumped (and frustrated.) Multiple times I have considered selling the camera and getting a MiniDV SD camcorder. But in a way I am glad I didn’t, because the Everio can get some sweet footage, and the fact that I couldn’t edit my video like I wanted to drove to new measures to discover the answer to my problems.

Eventually I decided to give the CyberLink BD Solution software a try (it came packaged with my camcorder.) Surprisingly enough it worked, and it has been quite useful to get some DVD projects done. I am planning on using it very soon to get another DVD project done. I edited the Dr. Narendra Singh – 2008 Interview with PowerProducer Express. Simple editing features are available, like splitting (cutting) video. You can also use a range of video transitions inbetween video clips – but I only ended up using a few of them, like Fade and Burn.

Now this is where the history gets a little blurry… at some time I tried Blender’s VSE (Video Sequence Editor) to try to do my video editing, but I still had trouble with the audio/video being out of sync – and I couldn’t figure out how to export my video with the audio!

So the days passed, and my years waned… no, that bad. 😉 But one day someone heard my call, a man by the name of Rob Scott. He had been working on something called BlenderAVC and kindly let me know about it by commenting to one of my posts here on the Minosa Films blog. That’s where it really started. From there I tried to get BlenderAVC to work. I filmed with a few different settings and gave Rob some of my .tod files to work with. Rob Scott’s BunnyHopHop workflow is very useful as well. But BlenderAVC still wasn’t working for me.

I finally got a project to work in Blender’s VSE, the audio and video being in sync! However, I won’t likely need to edit that project.

So, time passed…

Conclusion

But just today I downloaded the most recent version of BlenderAVC – BlenderAVC 0.7! I can import my .tod files and it works fine! But I still had trouble with my audio and video being out of sync. I wrote some e-mails to Rob Scott asking for advice, but I didn’t need to… read on. 🙂 I noticed that Zelgadis (leader of the Morevna Project) was online, so I started IMing him. He suggested I change the FPS on my file and so, after some tweaking, I reported back to him with a “OK, it’s official. You the man!” victory cry that it had worked.

BlenderAVC 0.7 - screenshot of some successfully synced audio and video (see the last two strips)

So, praise the Lord! One of my biggest video editing hurdles has been removed. With further testing I hope that I wll be able to consistently repeat this successful outcome and get the rest of the workflow down pat.

I have not yet realized how great this is… if it really is true. Maybe I will be glad tomorrow? 😀 Ahead of me lies the journey of actually learning what “video editing” really is! Whew… this is very good.

So, I guess that’s about all. I hope your journey is as exciting as mine – no, WAY more exciting!

Yeah, I sure hope so. There will still be hurdles down the road I imagine. 😉 Like figuring out the right video codecs.

Yeah, I’m learning to like it. 😉 I love the flexibility of the IPO curve editor with it. 😉 Still want to be able to do FX – especially with this daring idea I and some friends may pursue… a full-length WWII film… 😉 Hopefully we would avoid too complex of shots, but I am the one who wants to do FX shots: barrel flares, planes flying overhead, and crowd expansion to mention the three top FX things I want to learn. 😉

God bless and thanks for reading, Reyn! Maybe I will return to dA sometime – I’m taking a sort of sabbatical. 😉

About

Minosa Films is a small Christian film group stationed in the United States, dedicated to providing you clean, quality entertainment. We don’t just make you laugh, but think. That’s what we’re about: giving you a perfect film with a powerful message.